To:S. P. SEREDA

Written:Written on September 6, 1913Published:First published in 1931 inLenin Miscellany XVIII.

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1975,

      Moscow,Volume 44,

      page146a.Translated:Clemens DuttTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive.You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work, as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

ComradeSereda,

I’mvery sorry you did not drop in. You should not
have listened to the “overzealous”
doctors.[2]

Whyaren’t thingsworking outin Yelets Uyezd? This
worries me very much, and still more your “side-stepping”
on this question. Clearly, things do not work out. From 19 
volosts with Poor Peasants’ Committees,not oneclear,
precise report!

Notone
σ,[1]how many trucks, in what period of time ?!!

Innot one single volost(though there should be in 19)
have 3-5 intelligent workers from Petrograd (with 15–50
assistants from Moscow) been brought in.Nowhereare
there any indications that work isproceeding apace!

Whatis wrong? Please do reply. Appoint correspondents
for me ineachvolost, give them this letter of mine, and
let themallreply to me.

Regards,Yours,Lenin

[1]Total.—Ed.

[2]Leninwrote this letter when he was ill after being seriously
wounded on August 30, 1918, by the Socialist-Revolutionary terrorist,
Fanny Kaplan.

Inspite of the doctors’ orders, only a few days after being
wounded, Lenin began to occupy himself with affairs of state.
On September 16 the doctors allowed him to resume work. From
September 23 to mid-October Lenin was recuperating at Gorki
near Moscow.

Theletter mentions the harvesting of grain in Yelets Uyezd,
Orel Gubernia. On this subject see also this volume, Document
182.

Theoriginal bears the date “7.IX.1918”. But in the files of
the Council of People’s Commissars there is a copy of this letter
on which in an unknown hand is written the date “6/IX” and
the time of dispatch “21.10 hours” (Ts. G.A.O.R., USSR).
Moreover, on the night of September 6, Tsyurupa informed
Zinoviev in Petrograd: “today Vladimir llyich... wrote a letter” (Petrogradskaya PravdaNo. 194, September 7, 1918). This gives
grounds for assuming that the letter was written on September 6,
1918.